Google Funds Terrorists, Buys Poppy Farms, Kicks Puppies

Man, Google's been put through the rumour mill lately, being ground up into a fine Google grist. To wit, the search/advertising/world-domination company is being accused of giving itself an unfair advantage when posting ads for itself through its AdSense...

Man, Google's been put through the rumour mill lately, being ground up into a fine Google grist. To wit, the search/advertising/world-domination company is being accused of giving itself an unfair advantage when posting ads for itself through its AdSense system; and also that same system is being used on Al Qaeda and Hezbollah sites, meaning the terrorists are generating income from Google.

Our theory? Larry Page and Sergey Brin are opium kings on the side! They give themselves unfair AdSense advantages for Google's in-house ads, rake in $$, and then turn around and buy out poppy farmers and tribal leaders in Afghanistan (or Googlestan, as it's coming to be known). And they may have too much of a head start for Yahoo and Microsoft to catch up in the near future.

The really disgusting Google accusation this week, though, is that Google Maps may be responsible for CNET editor James Kim's death because it gave him a dangerous route to follow through Oregon. We're not going to make jokes about that one, but we WILL say that Google Maps doesn't use it's own data for that service. The real mapping info for all these mapping services is licensed from third-party geo-info companies like Navteq and TeleAtlas. It's a ridiculous charge to make to begin with, but IF you're looking for someone to blame for any bad directions through Oregon, you're going to have to dig deeper than Google.

Kyle Monson is the Senior Editor for PCMag.com. He oversees and edits PCMag.com’s home page and product news coverage, and helps out with site maintenance and editing. He also oversees feature projects like the Top 100 Web Sites, and writes reviews and news stories.
Kyle is the Founding Editor of AppScout, a PCMag.com-affiliated blog covering software and Web applications.
Before joining the PC Magazine staff, Kyle wrote for Newsweek and several daily newspapers. He has a BA in Communications (Print Journalism) from Brigham Young University.
Follow Kyle on...
More »